1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an overlay print technique using a form which has been created in advance.
2. Description of the Related Art
When a large amount of forms and labels are to be printed, it is preferable that the printing speed be high. Meanwhile, since the print job is treated as an image in some type of printers, the file size of the print job becomes extremely large.
Moreover, if the size of the print job which has been generated by printing application software on a personal computer (PC) through a printer driver is large, the printing speed is reduced because the job transfer from the PC to the printer takes time.
In view of the above situation, in order to increase the printing speed, there has been a proposed technique of registering a form in advance as a form file in a printer and performing overlay printing using the form and an inserted data file. Hereinafter, the relation between the form file and inserted data file is described with reference to FIG. 1.
FIG. 1 shows a relation between a form file and a data file. In the form file 101, fixed texts/graphics 104 which do not depend on data, and data flow-in space 105 are defined. Herein, the data flow-in space 105 will be referred to as a field.
An inserted data file 102 is a general text file or the like in which data is described in accordance with a printing application rule. The example in FIG. 1 describes to flow the data “1000 yen” to the field defined as <field 1>.
A rendering command, after which the printing application software flows data to the field based on the form file and inserted data file, is transmitted to the printer through a printer driver, and an output result 103 is obtained as a final printout.
Next described with reference to FIG. 2 is overlay printing in which a form (form file) is registered in advance in a printer.
FIG. 2 shows an example of overlay printing in which a form is registered in a printer. In the example in FIG. 2, a user instructs the printing application 203 to execute overlay printing of the form 201 and inserted data 202. According to the instruction, the printing application 203 first generates a form file 204 for overlay processing based on the form 201 and registers the form file 204 in a printer 207 through a printer driver 206.
Next, the printing application 203 analyzes the inserted data 202, and transmits rendering data 205, which includes only the data corresponding to the field in the form 201, to the printer driver 206. The printer driver 206 transmits a print job 209 to the printer 207 for rendering only the variable part that is different from the form 201 based on the rendering data 205.
By overlaying the form file 204 for overlay processing and the rendering data 205 by the printer 207, a final printout 208 can be obtained. Note that detailed processing of the printer driver 206 and printer 207 will be described later.
As described above, by virtue of performing overlay printing, the size of the print job which is transmitted from a printer driver to a printer can be made smaller than the case of not performing overlay printing. Therefore, print job transmission time from a printer driver to a printer can be reduced, and as a whole, improved printing speed can be achieved.
It should be noted that overlay printing is an existing technique. Patent applications related to overlay printing have been filed. For instance, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-122837 proposes a technique for designating plural forms in one job at the time of overlay printing. Furthermore, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-174951 proposes a technique for reducing the size of an inserted data file in addition to an overlay print technique.
However, when forms, labels or the like are printed, there is a case that a value set in a particular field repetitively appears for plural pages. FIG. 3 shows an example in which a value set in a particular field repetitively appears for plural pages. In FIG. 3, five pages of printouts are shown. By performing overlay printing of a form 301 and inserted data 302, a printing result 303 can be obtained. Herein, the value set in the field 304 is a common value “chemical A” from page 1 to page 3. “Chemical B” is set in page 4 and page 5.
If the registered form for overlay printing could include not only the fixed part set in the form, but also the data which repetitively appears for plural pages, such as numerals 401 and 402 in FIG. 4, further improvement in printing speed can be expected. By including the data (chemical A, chemical B) which repetitively appears for plural pages as part of the form, the size of the print job transmitted from the driver to the printer at the time of overlay printing is made even smaller.
However, in the current technology, data that can be registered in a printer at the time of overlay printing is only the fixed part of the form. The current technology has not so far considered registering inserted data in a printer for overlay printing.
As one of the means to solve this problem, the data which repetitively appears for plural pages may be set in the form not as inserted data, but as a fixed text string, and a plurality of forms may be created and registered in advance. However in this case, some data requires a vast amount of forms, and it is difficult for a user to manage the forms. Moreover, in a case of a printer having a small memory size which cannot afford to register plural forms, a plurality of forms cannot be registered in advance.